"Dance baby, dance"

So, we just woke up a few hours ago (around 11am!) after a late night at Golden Festival yesterday! It is an annual all night music festival with food, dancing, and Balkan music. Besnik had a great time: we arrived at 7pm, and stayed until a little after midnight--he only took a quick catnap during at about ten and spent the rest of the time dancing and making eyes at other dancers! There were tons of groups (it takes place at a big school, and there are three different performance spaces going on simultaneously), and part of the ticket proceeds are donated to various Balkan causes.

We didn't bring our camera, but here are some youtube clips of the groups Besnik heard. First, this is the brass band that organizes the festival each year, Zlatne Uste. Besnik was *very* impressed with this group, especially the low brass, "oom-pah" parts. While Mom ate, we danced to this group. (Besnik especially liked dancing with my advisor, Jane; he couldn't stop smiling at her and making his coy, shy faces.) This clip is of them playing in the main room at the 2008 Festival; they usually play on the dance floor as dancers circle them:





Besnik decided to sit this next group out. Yuri Yunakov's group was ear-splitting in the main room, so B and Mom retired downstairs. Yuri is a Bulgarian "wedding music" musician, and he played with a great Albanian synth player. After this group, we came upstairs for some of the more acoustic ensembles. We sat and relaxed while they played, and made some friends at our table. One woman asked if she could touch the fat baby legs she was so impressed with B's size! Here is the Yuri Yunakov ensemble, too loud for babies. He is the saxophonist:




Our favorite group of the evening was, by far, Merita Halili and Raif Hyseni! She is a very well-known Albanian singer, and her husband is an accordionist from Kosova. Besnik got a cheek-pinch from Merita earlier in the evening, so he was ready to hear her group later. Even though they went on at 10:30 to 11:15, we were still up and dancing the whole time. It got so hot dancing that we had to take off our socks! Here is a clip from Albanian tv (though not very good quality) of a medley that she performed part of last night:



All in all, a very successful evening! The man kept getting a "second wind" throughout the evening, but he did crash when we got home at almost 2am. No pics from last night, but here is a picture of Besnik blogging with me this morning for all you people that complain about posts without new photos...